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Clinical research is medical research that involves people like you. When you volunteer to take part in clinical research, you help doctors and researchers learn more about disease and improve healthcare for people in the future.

Types of clinical research include:

Epidemiology, which improves the understanding of a disease by studying patterns, causes and effects of health and disease in specific groups.

Behavioral, which improves the understanding of human behavior and how it relates to health and disease.

Health services, which looks at how people access health care providers and health care services, how much care costs, and what happens to patients as a result of this care.

Clinical trials, which evaluate the effects of an intervention on health outcomes.

Clinical trials are part of clinical research and at the heart of all medical advances. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease. Clinical trials can study:

• New drugs or new combinations of drugs
• New ways of doing surgery
• New medical devices
• New ways to use existing treatments
• New ways to change behaviors to improve health
• New ways to improve the quality of life for people with acute or chronic illnesses.

Why participate?

People take part in clinical trials for many reasons. Some are healthy, while others may have illnesses. Healthy volunteers say they take part to help others and to contribute to moving science forward.

People with an illness or disease also take part to help others, but also to possibly receive the newest treatment and to have added (or extra) care and attention from the clinical trial staff. Clinical trials offer hope for many people and a chance to help researchers find better treatments for others in the future

There are different types of clinical trials:

Prevention trials look for better ways to prevent a disease in people who have never had the disease or to prevent the disease from returning. Approaches may include medicines, vaccines or lifestyle changes.

Screening trials test new ways for detecting diseases or health conditions.

Diagnostic trials study or compare tests or procedures for diagnosing a particular disease or condition.

Treatment trials test new treatments, new combinations of drugs, or new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy.

Behavioral trials evaluate or compare ways to promote behavioral changes designed to improve health.

Quality of life trials (or supportive care trials) explore and measure ways to improve the comfort and quality of life of people with conditions or illnesses.

Healthy volunteers needed

Research procedures with healthy volunteers are designed to develop new knowledge, not to provide direct benefit to those taking part. Healthy volunteers have always played an important role in research.

Healthy volunteers are needed for several reasons. When developing a new technique, such as a blood test or imaging device, healthy volunteers help define the limits of “normal.” These volunteers are the baseline against which patient groups are compared and are often matched to patients by age, gender or family relationship. They receive the same tests, procedures or drugs the patient group receives. Researchers learn about the disease process by comparing the patient group to the healthy volunteers.

Factors like how much of your time is needed, discomfort you may feel, or risk involved depends on the trial. While some require minimal amounts of time and effort, other studies may require a major commitment of your time and effort, and may involve some discomfort.

The research procedure(s) may also carry some risk. The informed consent process for healthy volunteers includes a detailed discussion of the study’s procedures and tests, and their risks.

Only through clinical research can we gain insights and answers about the safety and effectiveness of treatments and procedures. Groundbreaking scientific advances in the present and the past were possible only because of participation of volunteers, both healthy and those with an illness, in clinical research.

To find a health study in your area, visit clinicaltrials.gov.